NEO Blockchain: Is it the Ethereum killer?

[labake]

NEO was introduced in 2014 by On-chain, a China-based company. Da Hongei and Erik Zhang founded the company and later conducted two crowdfunding rounds to gather funds for the NEO project. The team was able to collect to collect around $5 million USD, and with this, launched the NEO project.

The basic difference between NEO and Ethereum is that the latter allows smart contracts to be built using special programming languages such as Solidity. Whereas, the former provides programmers with the ease of building smart contracts using already established languages such as C# and Java.

By supporting these well-established languages, NEO opens itself to a wide array of experienced developers, who can test out the platform and innovate new creations.

NEO wants to develop itself as the main smart economy platform in the world by replacing Ethereum and Bitcoin. And just like Ethereum and Bitcoin, NEO will support dApps and other utilities on top of it, and users will be able to develop decentralized organizations on top of it too.

Another major difference between NEO and the two famous contemporary blockchains is that NEO implements a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model instead of Proof-of-Work (PoW). The latter is used by Ethereum and Bitcoin’s blockchain, and the problem with it is the high cost of energy associated with the protocol.

In PoW, computers on the network compete to solve mathematical problems in order to obtain rewards in the form of coins. This secures the network but has a high cost in terms of energy consumption. In PoS, the token holders validate the transactions and consequently, secure the network by staking their coins temporarily in exchange for a reward.
By following the PoS protocol, all token holders are able to vote on the consensus nodes that validate the network, and these consensus nodes then validate each block in the blockchain.

Critics argue that NEO’s weak point is that the whole system is very centralized. This criticism does not come without its proof as the majority of the tokens on the NEO network are currently owned by NEO foundation. Moreover, since the project is mainly focused in China and within Chinese companies, some would also argue that the system is just too geographically centralized.

However, this will change as the system goes through widespread adoption and people start accepting NEO blockchain. The NEO foundation is selling the tokens to the users, and the system will soon become more decentralized.

NEO Usage
NEO has a similar usage to Ethereum and will support all the functionalities that are provided by its competitor. The only difference is that NEO will support well-established programming languages, which will make it easier for developers to get into the blockchain industry. NEO wants to make their smart contracts more approachable, scalable and regulatory compliant.

The following are some of the industries that will benefit from NEO:

Financial Industry
Contemporary financial contracts require a number of middlemen and other formalities, which build up excessive fees, even for simple matters. By using smart contracts, parties can automate payments and commercial transactions, while reducing middlemen and cutting down fees.

Real Estate
The real estate industry is known for its exorbitant fees, and a large number of middlemen, each having their cut. This process can be streamlined using smart contracts, and all the unnecessary middlemen can be eliminated.

Government
Blockchain and smart contracts can have a wide range of applications for the government. An example of where blockchain can be used is in the voting system because the platform is known for its ability to resist corruption.

Supply Chain
Using blockchain companies can streamline their supply chain by automatically keeping track of their shipments, and other transactions. Blockchains are significantly more automatic and require less manual labor.

These are just some of the applications of blockchain and smart contracts. Companies and governments can use the new technology for various purposes, and the benefit of using NEO over its competitors is that NEO is more accessible and regulatory friendly.

NEO dAPP Projects
For NEO to become successful in replacing Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchain it needs to get widespread acceptance from blockchain projects. The progress has been smooth and steady, with many projects boarding the NEO blockchain, and using it instead of the other two options.

NEO is also supporting some of the famous main dApps that are on the Ethereum blockchain. NEO supports the following dApps right now, and many more are to be introduced:

Redpulse
This was the first ICO on the NEO network and can be considered as the decentralized Bloomberg, focused on the blockchain industry.

Switcheo
It is the first decentralized exchange that is working on the NEO platform and has already become the fourth largest exchange in terms of volume. The exchange will provide easy access to NEO-based tokens in the future.

NEX
The NEX exchange is gaining a lot of traction for their impending ICO and is another decentralized exchange that is based on the NEX blockchain.

Thor
It is a blockchain based marketplace for freelancers, just like the conventional Freelancers and Upwork.

Thekey
A very interesting project that aims to make it easier to verify government provided identifications over the internet.

Some famous platforms that are being supported by Ethereum, and that are also now supported on NEO are the following:

Bluzelle
The platform allows people to voluntarily share their computer storage for the use of developers to build dApps, and other useful products.

Zilliqa
The platform uses a technique called sharding to greatly improve the speed of their blockchain network.
These are just some of the projects that are currently being supported by NEO, and the blockchain is paving the way for other projects and platforms too.

Token Information
The NEO blockchain will be backed by a utility token that will be supplied in a limited number. The following is some of the information about the token:
Type: Utility
Maximum Supply: 100,000,000 NEO
Circulating Supply: 65,000,000 NEO
Protocol: Proof of Stake (Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

[mastersay]

Years from now, when NEO was fully established, surely it will replace ethereum in its place. NEO is a strong coin with a strong features. And if you look into its features especially at its transfer speed, ethereum coin cant keep up on NEO. Also neo is getting popular, as many ICO is using neo blockchain on its token.

[3kpk3]

I own several NEO myself since I like this coin after doing a good amount of research regarding its real life use cases, but I highly doubt this will ever replace Ethereum since ETH is a more established coin with a wider network and is way more popular than NEO. I do not support the Chinese government's stance on crypto which is another reason why I don't have complete faith in NEO. Ethereum continues to innovate and the move to POS will help it soon.

[Ini35]

Ever since i knew the potentials embedded in the technology with which NEO is build, i knew it would make a great deal of difference in the crypto space. This are more reasons are why i have decided to invest into NEO. It has a lot of future prospects. Investing into NEO and the tech is good idea.

[Crasengover]

I don't belive that NEO will beat Ethereum one day. Some trading experts consider NEO a dead blockchain. I think that both ETH and NEO will be replaced by new more advanced blockchains in a year or two.

[labake]

I own several NEO myself since I like this coin after doing a good amount of research regarding its real life use cases, but I highly doubt this will ever replace Ethereum since ETH is a more established coin with a wider network and is way more popular than NEO. I do not support the Chinese government's stance on crypto which is another reason why I don't have complete faith in NEO. Ethereum continues to innovate and the move to POS will help it soon.

Yeah, you are point mentioning Chinese government as a matter of fact, I think that would hinder progress of the coin up to an extent.

[abake]

I’ve being reading comments here and I know for sure that everyone is entitled to their opinion and when someone believe too much in something, nothing would ever change their mind about what they believe in. Moreover, NEO blockchain is a good blockchain and doing great for years like wise ETH but I don’t think anyone would kill anyone in the industry.

[lobo13hf]

I’ve being reading comments here and I know for sure that everyone is entitled to their opinion and when someone believe too much in something, nothing would ever change their mind about what they believe in. Moreover, NEO blockchain is a good blockchain and doing great for years like wise ETH but I don’t think anyone would kill anyone in the industry.

NEO even gets killed by a new over hyped blockchain just like ADA and EOS. if you are seeing the words and it's true if OP was shilling for NEO. This is not my first time to see this kind of thread. In fact NEO still nothing compared with ethereum. These persons never realized the fact that has already happened in the market,

[IVEXO]

Neo can only try
But It is nothing compared to Etherum Blockchain
Neo seem to be more of a hype than hardwor

In years to come, Neo can be better
But Neo is never an Etherum killer
Take note

[armlock]

I believe that at the moment these are two completely unequal projects. NEO has yet to prove its capabilities, only good projects are beginning to come out on it. On ERC20 projects come out dozens every day, he has no equal ...

[abake]

I believe that at the moment these are two completely unequal projects. NEO has yet to prove its capabilities, only good projects are beginning to come out on it. On ERC20 projects come out dozens every day, he has no equal ...

Thanks for your contribution. This is absolutely a great one from you. I concur

[CuriousGeorge]

Neo can only try
But It is nothing compared to Etherum Blockchain
Neo seem to be more of a hype than hardwor

In years to come, Neo can be better
But Neo is never an Etherum killer
Take note

Well there's still plenty of possibilities that NEO could take over ethereum's throne but I agree that it's nowhere to kill ETH since it's still far below ETH in every aspect I guess, not talking about the feature anyway.
The fact that ETH's smartcontract still be used widely until now alone is enough to be sure that ETH will hold its position for a long time.

[ttookk]

It's funny how you skip the "interesting" parts.

(…)

Another major difference between NEO and the two famous contemporary blockchains is that NEO implements a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model instead of Proof-of-Work (PoW). The latter is used by Ethereum and Bitcoin’s blockchain, and the problem with it is the high cost of energy associated with the protocol.

(…)

Protocol: Proof of Stake (Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

The protocol is not PoS and not BFT, although they stated otherwise. At the time, it is seven servers, all controlled by the NEO guys, talking to each other. A few months back, one of the servers didn't answer, stalling the whole network. BFT implies that this can't happen, because the very meaning of Byzantine Fault Tolerance is "we can deal with parts of the nodes being unresponsive/dishonest".

(…)

Critics argue that NEO’s weak point is that the whole system is very centralized. This criticism does not come without its proof as the majority of the tokens on the NEO network are currently owned by NEO foundation. Moreover, since the project is mainly focused in China and within Chinese companies, some would also argue that the system is just too geographically centralized.

(…)

Protocol: Proof of Stake (Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

This is not why critics argue that NEO is centralized, the main argument is that it is based on permissioned nodes, which are at the time controlled by NEO people alone and which are not chosen by user consensus. This is why it is calle centralized and unless this doesn't change fundamentally, it will never become fully decentralized.

So no, NEO won't replace Ethereum, because they don't even play in the same league. Ethereum aims to become an immutable, decentralized network, while NEO is and will stay centralized, having a totally different usecase and appealing to a totally different userbase.

Just like Bitcoin and Paypal are not comparable, NEO and Ethereum aren't comparable. Apples and oranges.

[Black Coffee]

I think not and it is very difficult for other coins to replace ethereum. I am sure ethereum will not remain silent and they will soon provide the latest innovations.

[d4n13]

Neo is not capable of doing it so, that is the main reason of why they collected such a little amount of money compared to what ETH raised on their ICO Stage, yes, they had an ICO and it lasted for months.
NEO is good enough, but it is not better than eth.